Farming Needs To Adapt To Climate Change: PM

AFR - Phillip Coorey

Malcolm Turnbull on his rural property on Sunday. Supplied

The federal government will lean on the states to help communities suffering from prolonged drought but Malcolm Turnbull says farmers will ultimately have to adapt to the consequences of climate change.
With drought threatening much of the east coast grain crop as well as large swaths of Western Australia, Mr Turnbull said the rural sector needed to become more "resilient" to adapt to what was "clearly a drier, hotter and more variable climate".
"That's what we've got to plan for, resilience is the key," the Prime Minister said.
"The climate is changing. I know it becomes a political debate. But there's no doubt that our climate is getting warmer.

Malcolm Turnbull during a visit to Strathmore Farm in Trangie NSW, on Monday. Ivan McDonnell

"I don't know many people in rural NSW that I talk to that don't think the climate is getting drier and rainfall is becoming more volatile."
Mr Turnbull said while income support and associated measures like counselling were important for short-term relief, ultimately "you've got to ensure we can do everything we can to ensure that farmers are resilient".
This could range from greater incentives for building feed and grain storage facilities to even running fewer stock.
"The reality that you face is that rainfall has always been variable in Australia, it appears to be getting more variable," he said.
He was speaking on the first day of a three-day listening tour of NSW and Queensland with his senior agricultural ministers including Nationals leader Michael McCormack and Agriculture Minister David Littleproud, whose Queensland seat of Maranoa is in its seventh year of drought.

Waiting patiently
Other areas on the east coast are in there third or fourth year without a crop. This year, some farmers have not seeded while others have sown dry and are praying for rain by the end of June.
"We've all been awaiting patiently and looking to the sky. You don't want to cast doom and gloom but the fact is we really desperately need rain in the next three or four weeks," Mr McCormack told The Australian Financial Review.
"We'll wait patiently over the the next three or four weeks and then see what we can do.
"For some its already too late. For them we'll need to work out something in conjunction with the states."
Under the current Farm Household Allowance Scheme, eligible farm families receive the equivalent of the dole for three years plus financial and other counselling. Concessional loans are also available.
While the government may be prepared to extend such assistance, it also wants the states to chip in. This could be in the form of more assistance to regional towns, the businesses and community facilities of which suffer when the farm sector has no money.
KPMG agribusiness economist Robert Poole said the value of food and fibre at the farm gate was $50 billion which, while significant, was not a huge proportion of the national economy.
"But it's a significant sector with a big multiplier effect," he said.
"You've always got to take it seriously."
A spokesman for the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences said it was too early to estimate the economic impact of the current dry season.
"Farmers are only part way through sowing this season's crop the final outcome depends on what actually ends up being sown, what in-crop rainfall is received and when," he said.
On the other hand, commodity prices were still high.
Shadow agriculture minister Joel Fitzgibbon said now was not the tie to saddle farmers with more debt and he government had been remiss in its planning.
"No support is in place for farming families about to exhaust their three-year long entitlement to the Farm Household Allowance," he said.

Links

• Bureau of Meteorology: Drought
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